Thursday, January 17, 2008

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's statement has come as a shock to people in Uttar Pradesh and throughout the country.

Naqvi, the Muslim face of the BJP in the post Sikandar Bakht-era, exceeded all limits and allegedly said that Maulana Mohammad Ali was the Osama Bin Laden of his times.

Naturally the statement has drawn wide condemnation. There is anger across UP. "BJP should answer whether fighting the British rule was a terrorist activity?", said All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat.Maulana Mohammad Ali, a great patriot, had vowed at the Round Table Conference, to never return to Ghulaam Hindostan and come back only when the country would attain freedom. After his legendary speech against British imperialism in London, he had collapsed and died.

He was buried in Jerusalem. A close associate of Gandhi and top leaders of the era, Maulana Mohammad Ali (and his brother Shaukat Ali) was a great freedom fighter, and his role was not limited to the Khilafat Movement alone.

Maulana Mohammad Ali was passionate about India's freedom. Mohammad Ali was a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity. He was fiercely against British rule and played a vital role in establishing the Jamia Millia Islamia. Maulana Muhammad Ali was at the forefront of the freedom movement and was also the president of Indian National Congress.

He suffered enormously in process but espoused the cause of freedom movement with a missionary zeal. It is true that during the course of non-cooperation movement, differences cropped up between him and the Mahatma. He drifted towards the Muslim league due to the disillusionment with Congress but it remains debatable whether he would have sided for division of the country.

Gandhiji always held him in high esteem and used to say that "I learnt Siasat from Ali brothers." Maulana was a journalist par excellence and his newspapers Comrade, which was published from Calcutta, and Hamdard were popular for his straightforwardness.

Though he belongs to Rampur and has a political rivalry with Azam Khan, founder of Mohammad Ali Jauhar university, the sick remark took everybody by surprise. Even RSS leaders in the past never uttered such lies.

Naqvi has probably lost his mental balance. After all, does he have credentials to make such commentsBut he must answer, whether his party believes that opposing British rule was terrorism. And what is his definition of patriotism in his eyes--Godse and General Dyer?

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